What was the point of the game in Future Diary?

Question

In Future Diary, the justification for the game was that Deus was dying and looking for a successor. That's an easy enough premise to understand.

But then it turns out that this is not the first time that this has happened. Yuno had previously won the game and used her powers to enter the reality that we observe so that she can be with Yuki. That is a little complicated but still relatively easy to follow.

Then when Yuki wins he ends up in his own reality, and we see that Deus is alive and well and it is around here that I begin to lose the plot.

What is the point of the game? It shows absolutely no evidence of achieving it's stated goal, and by all appearances the stated justification for the game itself is false.

I realize that this question may seem confusing, but that is only because the subject matter is immensely confusing.

So, in short, what was the point of the game?

Answer 1

You're completely right in the reasoning that Deus is looking for a successor, and that is what happens in each case of the game playing out.

The survival game the anime covers is that of the second reality, which Yuki ends up winning. What isn't revealed until near the end of the story is that there was initially a first reality with it's own survival game, which Yuno won.

In the first reality, Yuno becomes so close to Yuki that after he dies and she wins, she can't bear being alone without him, so abuses the powers of the first reality's Murmur to enter the second reality to be with Yuki once again. Her plan was to do this repeatedly, winning the game in multiple iterations over numerous realities to be with Yuki for, essentially, eternity. Of course, this comes to a halt after the initial victory, as Yuki wins the second game.